Finding Who Fits
by Amarin Rose
Summary: Pairing: Tim–Charlie Summary: Tim's finally realized he and Cassie aren't good for each other. But being alone isn't doing him any good, either. After discarding all of the girls he knows, it turns out that a girl he hasn't yet met is the one he needs.


**Finding Who Fits**

* * *

Tim Drake had finally realized what he needed in his life.

Someone to love him. All of him. Robin and Tim Drake.

He'd given it a lot of thought, and he'd also come to the conclusion that that someone had to be…well, like Steph (his heart still hurt when he thought about her), or Kon (ditto with the hurt). Whether they were a friend or more (he tried not to think about how Kon **could** have been more, because that made the hurt worse), he needed someone in his life, someone bright and, if not happy, at least more open than him.

Bart had…stopped being that, before he'd died. (Sometimes Tim thought this hurt was the worst, since Bart had always been the youngest of them, even though he was a year and a half older than Kon.) Bart had been brightness given form; an effervescent personality that let nothing get him down, always rose above the badness in the world.

At least until he'd gotten shot. Then everything had gone downhill, for all of them.

Tim needed someone who could, contrary to him – who, when bad things happened, never got over the hurt no matter if he **did** start living his life again – at least get **past** the hurt and let him or herself be happy again. Someone who could take an emotional licking and keep on ticking, without slowing down afterwards. Someone who could get back on the proverbial horse without hesitating at every change of pace thereafter.

(Tim always thought things through first; he never acted on instinct. Not anymore. He couldn't trust himself to get things right, just like he couldn't trust anyone else not to die on him, now matter how supposedly invulnerable they were.)

Cassie was his first option, but she'd never healed from Kon's death, and Bart's… Well, he tried to be there for her, but now they were both broody, melancholy, sometimes angry people. Cassie needed someone just like Tim did, but while what they needed was similar, neither of them could give that to the other.

Cassie just nodded when he broke up with her – "I don't think we're good for each other, Cassie." "I know," she'd said. "But it was nice not to be alone…for awhile." "Yeah." With a final hug, their short-lived relationship was over, though thankfully not their friendship. – she'd known it was coming from the very beginning.

Rose was another option; she **had** shown interest in him, and before Cassie had. But really, she wasn't bright so much as explosive; a powder keg waiting to go off. She had her own problems, problems which Tim didn't think he could be much help with. Jericho seemed to be helping her with them, however. And, for all that she'd tried to seduce him several times near the beginning off her tenure on the team, she'd stopped that long ago. Rose seemed to have chosen Eddie.

All for the best, that.

M'gann didn't know enough about human emotions that Tim thought she would work. Also, she was happy most of the time, but she was also shy and quiet, and could brood with the best of them. And he wasn't really attracted to her. They could be friends, but Tim already knew that beneath her quiet exterior lurked someone who was hurting. While maybe together they could work through their problems together, that would take time.

And that pretty much exhausted everyone he knew, since that thing with Zoanne had **so** not worked out. That was why Tim, in Robin guise, was currently huddled on top of his favorite gargoyle (one equidistant between the Clocktower, the Manor, and what **used** to be his house), sulking.

The first time he actually met Misfit was fifteen minutes later, eleven minutes after he'd jumped into the middle of a gang fight (a war would have been more than two gangs of six and eight people each, respectively. Tim hoped he never ended up in the middle of a gang war ever again.).

She announced herself by shouting, "Daaaaark Vengeance!" as she jumped down from two stories above (the building behind her was five stories tall, and the fire escape was on the other side, so Tim knew it was someone with powers before she'd finished the first word; not having talked to Babs in a while, he just didn't know **who**).

Once she landed (rather well-balanced, if a bit wobbly on her feet) in the middle of five of the gang members, she went into a rather Xena-esque spin-kick circle thing. It was more showy than practical; it looked semi-impressive, but didn't really do anything other than scatter the gang members, though she did end up clipping one of them on the jaw.

Tim got the feeling it was more by accident than anything else, though.

Ten minutes later the fight was over, Misfit having proved actually exceptional at 'bouncing' (as Robin would learn she called her teleportation) behind the gang members and giving them a two-fisted punch over the head to knock them out.

Her exuberance wasn't quite catching, but when Misfit introduced herself – "Hey, you're Robin, right? I'm Misfit!" – and suggested they go out for ice cream…well, Robin found it hard not to resist.

Several weeks and even more joint patrols together, Tim was finding Charlie hard to resist. She was adorable when she laughed, loved comic books and sci-fi novels, and hadn't let the death of her family get her down.

Misfit fit just fine with him.

* * *

THE END


End file.
